{"id":11362,"date":"2018-02-28T20:10:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T20:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=11362"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:40:19","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:40:19","slug":"gre-study-habits-highly-effective-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/gre-study-habits-highly-effective-students\/","title":{"rendered":"7 GRE Study Habits of Highly-Effective Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manhattan<\/p>\n

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30 minutes of highly-focused study beats 2 hours of \u201chalf-studying.\u201d<\/b><\/h4>\n

I\u2019d like to share with you a little study mantra. This is something I firmly and absolutely believe to be true: \u201c30 minutes of highly-focused study is far better than 2 hours of half-studying.\u201d As much as one might try to make up for poor GRE study habits by slogging through a multi-hour weekend marathon session, it just doesn\u2019t work. There are so many reasons to avoid such lengthy study sessions\u2014increasing fatigue, impaired retention, general painfulness of sitting there for so long\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

If you study this way, not only will you fail to improve, but you\u2019ll teach yourself to hate the GRE in the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of bashing the practice of lengthy \u201chalf-studying\u201d sessions, let\u2019s focus in on exactly what makes a study session \u201chighly-focused.\u201d I don\u2019t think this is the norm for study, by any means. And I don\u2019t think one achieves it easily or automatically. Here are a few things you can do to hit that golden-standard study session and develop good GRE study habits:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Spend 90% of your time solving and 10% reading\u2014not the other way around.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. When you do read, read with a purpose.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Time the problems. You can go back if you need to, just be aware of the time.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Embed reflection at the end of every problem set. <\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Study short\u2014no more than 30-45 minutes without a break.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Treat scrap paper as a precious resource. Document meticulously.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Mix old and new. Every session should include some throwbacks.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s get into a little more detail on how exactly to pull this off:<\/span><\/p>\n

    1. Read Only What You Need<\/b><\/h4>\n